But they want me to make a lot of changes. Like, change the Discussion to not mention the main premise of my paper. My data ended up not being right for it that way, but I didn't really know I could change the questions from my proposal to something that I could actually, like, defend.

I remember, like 6 months ago, wishing I could do this, but didn't know I was allowed and didn't ask, so I was stuck trying to write it in a very complicated sort of way.

But the thesis is due to the grad school in 2 days, with a LOT of changes. So I call tomorrow and ask for an extension. If it was just cosmetic changes I could do that, but rewriting things, not so much.

Ok, well, now I'm taking off work tomorrow and maybe the next day and not getting any sleep and hoping the adrenaline rush I got 6 months ago comes back to me. Just when I'm on the cusp of "stupid brain crampy weepy" period days. UGH. Its gonna be hard.

_________________Evolved a vascular system, so I went from bryophyte to lycophyte.

I'm up to 44 pages on my thesis. I've written 2.5 of 7 chapters. At least one of the remaining ones will be really short. (Future work! That is a total bullshiitake chapter. I could probably write it now.) Starting to feel like maybe I'll make it on time? Maybe?

Of course, I still need to finish the forking project itself. I'm so close to having nothing left to do but to gather results, but not quite there yet.

Does anyone here use iWork? Have you found a reference manager which will work with Pages? I just learned about Bookends, but it's expensive and doesn't sound compatible with the iWork upgrade that came with Mavericks. (Maybe I'm wrong?) Anyway, I have so far sucked it up and just manually entered citations when writing in Pages, but that seems silly. I will not being doing that for the diss, but loathe having to use Word again.

I'm so tired of Word. That's all about that. I redid my tables in excel and need to put them back into Word and I am not looking forward to the likely tables-splitting-and-jumping around panic attacks that will ensue.

_________________Evolved a vascular system, so I went from bryophyte to lycophyte.

Of course, I still need to finish the forking project itself. I'm so close to having nothing left to do but to gather results, but not quite there yet.

Ugh, grad school twins. I'm going to be working this summer but I will still be going into the lab nights & weekends to finish my project, and somewhere I have to fit in writing my thesis, filing in the research gaps as I complete them. That's not the way thesis writing is supposed to work. :(

I'm such a wreck. My doctor put me on anti-anxiety meds and ambien to help with my stress-induced insomnia. My adviser is not helping. He tried to make me a team leader on a group presentation in two weeks. The prep for it usually takes two weeks, so it's pretty unheard of for someone about to finish to waste time on it (esp considering I've already done it twice in the past year and we are only supposed to have to go once per year). I had to confront him yesterday and fight to be removed. He did, but no wonder I'm such a mess. I feel like I need more medicating.

Of course, I still need to finish the forking project itself. I'm so close to having nothing left to do but to gather results, but not quite there yet.

I'm going to be working this summer but I will still be going into the lab nights & weekends to finish my project

That sounds like "fun." :(

Man, it's rare that I say this about someone I've never even met but... I think I really hate your advisor. Hang in there buddy. I hope the meds help and you can get some sleep.

Down to 8 days now before my report is due to my advisor. The worst of the writing is over, though it's largely a steaming pile of shiitake. The awesome thing about being almost out of time is that I have no time left to give a shiitake about how much my shiitake stinks. It is kind of freeing in a way.

Though, I still care a little bit. Two days ago I came across someone else's master's thesis-- a random dude in Germany-- who did nearly the same thing as my project, last year. Except in a much better way. I guess he didn't publish anything related to it though because he doesn't show up AT ALL in Google scholar, nor does his thesis. (Came across it while normal-googling something else.) It was kind of devastating to read it, his solution is so much better and his final product looks so much less half assed than mine. I spent about an hour incapacitated by the horror of it and then I got back up because like I said, I've got no time for giving a shiitake right now!

Agreed with everyone couroupita: Your advisor sounds terrible. I hope you can move on without too much advisor-inflicted damage. I'm happy you stood up to him (seriously, how could he even do that?!), and hope you get exactly and only what you need from now til the end of your degree.

It seems like everyone's thesis is kind of crepe at first, so I think you're ok! After you get feedback from your advisor, you can make all the changes that matter. Does that mean you were scooped? That really sucks, I'm sorry. :(

I had the "big talk" with my advisor today, that I have paid $10k in tuition and paid my living expenses for a year and have no more money. I told him I found a job over the summer and that I also wanted to take my writing quarter and defend in the summer and he gave me a big fat no. He assumed I'd work in the lab this summer. I convinced him (after a lot of crying) to let me work at my internship, with the concession that I would work mornings, evenings, and weekends in the lab, I won't defend until September, and I must take my writing quarter in the fall. And he said I would have to be disciplined or else I wouldn't finish. I figured he'd make me work nights and weekends, but I didn't think he'd make me take another quarter (that would make me an 8th year grad student...unheard of in organic chemistry). I'm so emotionally exhausted from that confrontation that I can't even process what just happened.

If you work all that time in the lab, when do you have time to work at your job? Isn't there a confidential counselor or somebody you can talk to about this? He's not just a bully, it sounds like he's harassing you. I wish I could grab desdemona or c&s and say a thing or two to him on your behalf.

I will have to do my normal job hours (whatever those are, hopefully I won't have to work overtime) and then work in my grad lab before and after my normal work day, and weekends. Hopefully my body can hold up to the stress. Fortunately, my internship is very close to campus so it will be easy to go between the two.

I'm going to talk to the chemistry dept. grad student advisor tomorrow to see what can be done if he tries to not let me defend at the end of summer. The problem is there are very few things they can do. My committee might be able to step in and override him, but I'm not sure. The other student who graduated last fall had the same problem. She appealed all the way up to the dean and they basically said they couldn't help her, so I'm not hopeful.

Though, I still care a little bit. Two days ago I came across someone else's master's thesis-- a random dude in Germany-- who did nearly the same thing as my project, last year. Except in a much better way. I guess he didn't publish anything related to it though because he doesn't show up AT ALL in Google scholar, nor does his thesis. (Came across it while normal-googling something else.) It was kind of devastating to read it, his solution is so much better and his final product looks so much less half assed than mine. I spent about an hour incapacitated by the horror of it and then I got back up because like I said, I've got no time for giving a shiitake right now!

I feel comforted by the thought "Hoops! Its just forking hoops! JUMP!"

OMG! I finished my table of contents (minus page numbering), abstract, introduction, results (except maybe putting in some df or other cross stats...maybe) and discussion revisions (except maybe putting in 1 or 2 more lit quotes). I am through half of my background revisions, and that just leaves methods and lit cited!

I think I'm far enough along that I can go to work tomorrow and just shut the door and say "leave me alone, I'm not here" for awhile, but otherwise, I don't have to call off for the whole day! YAY.

Maybe I can email it to cmtee by tomorrow, lunch? Maybe? So maybe I can get around to tax extension form-filling out!

Then I have to hope my committee agrees its good enough and will sign off.

But, there may actually be an end. Its crepe, and I don't care.

_________________Evolved a vascular system, so I went from bryophyte to lycophyte.

It seems like everyone's thesis is kind of crepe at first, so I think you're ok! After you get feedback from your advisor, you can make all the changes that matter. Does that mean you were scooped? That really sucks, I'm sorry. :(

ITs true, you aren't far enough along in your writing to feel that scooped! Does it really matter? Probably not- if they aren't published yet, you too can get published! There are a lot of articles and journals out there.

Quote:

I had the "big talk" with my advisor today, that I have paid $10k in tuition and paid my living expenses for a year and have no more money. I told him I found a job over the summer and that I also wanted to take my writing quarter and defend in the summer and he gave me a big fat no. He assumed I'd work in the lab this summer. I convinced him (after a lot of crying) to let me work at my internship, with the concession that I would work mornings, evenings, and weekends in the lab, I won't defend until September, and I must take my writing quarter in the fall. And he said I would have to be disciplined or else I wouldn't finish. I figured he'd make me work nights and weekends, but I didn't think he'd make me take another quarter (that would make me an 8th year grad student...unheard of in organic chemistry). I'm so emotionally exhausted from that confrontation that I can't even process what just happened

UGH. Advisors are the most draining of all people. This all sounds super sucky and I'm so sorry :(

Ok, back to work now! Gonna see if I can get everything but work's cited edits final read through before going to bed. Hopefully I can sleep some tonight anyway, because working in a visitor center after an all nighter is haaaaaard.

_________________Evolved a vascular system, so I went from bryophyte to lycophyte.

I feel comforted by the thought "Hoops! Its just forking hoops! JUMP!"

I say this all the time. Lycophyte, C & S, and couropita - I'm sorry some of your hoops seem to be on fire right now, but as others have said, grit your teeth and push through: you're so close to being done with this crepe!

I've been pounding away at my dissertation prospectus, and finally feel like I can envision the project. I know that things will change as I'm writing The Thing Itself (future Desdemona will know things and have ideas and insights that present Desdemona hasn't thought of yet), but it feels good to have a sense of what I'm doing. That said, I still have to get it signed off on and filed before I can actually start writing. This past week I had to pull stuff together to apply for summer funding, but my advisor said it looked excellent and I'm virtually guaranteed to get it, so that's a relief. I'm happy to only have two more weeks of teaching this semester; that will be followed by a ton of grading, but after that it will be great to have that part of my brain back for a few months. I'm really hoping to churn out chapter one before classes start back up in the fall. On the whole, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about being the kind of doctor who doesn't help people by spring 2016!

Ok guys, I've never posted in this thread but I'm working towards a certificate program (Environmental Policy) with graduate level classes. I just found out that the only option for a summer class I have is a 5 week program. I really want to finish this sucker up this winter for a variety of reasons so it looks like I"m either going to deal with the stress of a 5 week program OR take two classes this fall. I'm feeling a bit burned out right now but I really like my current professor and he's the one teaching the 'maymester'. If I take two classes this fall, one of them will HAVE to be with the professor from last fall who I really didn't like, she wasn't responsive, was self absorbed and slow to do anything. Also, it will be two classes on top of working full time, leading the climate activism/movement within New england quakers and probably having some kind of leadership role with a grassroots climate activist network here.

I really want to finish this because I think I might be applying for 'real' grad school starting next fall, specifically maybe social work. (Or public administration, which would let me continue working)

Ok, well, I've done all the edits except for changing my Discussion into something my advisor will like. I suppose they want stuff in the tables too, that I've not done yet, but I could potentially get them to skip over that thing...maybe. Ooof.

_________________Evolved a vascular system, so I went from bryophyte to lycophyte.

The guy in Germany accomplished roughly the same task as me, but in a totally different way. His way has some distinct advantages to it and was almost certainly a lot less work than mine. It's just a really clever way to solve one of the problems! And I felt dumb for not thinking of it. But it's okay.

I have a week left to finish my report. Excitingly, I might make it. Maybe.